Zoho has updated the Zoho Recruit Terms of Use to add new provisions specifically covering the use of AI features within the platform. If your organisation uses Zoho Recruit, these changes affect how you are expected to use AI-powered functionality such as resume parsing, content generation, and AI agents. Continuing to use Zoho Recruit after the update date is treated as acceptance of the revised terms.

What counts as an AI Feature

Zoho Recruit's AI functionality, referred to as AI Features, covers capabilities built on machine learning, language models, speech or image recognition, and similar technologies. These features can help generate content, summarise or classify information, retrieve data, transcribe audio or video, and, in the case of AI agents, carry out certain actions on your behalf. They run on Zia, Zoho's own AI engine, which also draws on third-party AI providers to extend its capabilities.

You choose which AI Features to enable and how to configure most of them. One exception is the AI-powered resume parsing feature, which is switched on by default because it underpins core recruitment functionality. This can be turned off, but only by contacting Zoho Recruit support directly.

Input and Output, and why the distinction matters

The updated terms define anything you submit to an AI Feature (content, data, prompts, criteria, or instructions) as Input, and whatever the AI Feature produces (generated content, suggestions, actions taken, or results returned) as Output. This distinction matters because responsibility for each sits with you as the customer, not with Zoho.

Your obligations under the new terms

The core message of the update is that AI Features are assistive and informational only, and their output can be inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent. Zoho now sets out explicitly that you must not treat AI output as the sole basis for a decision. As the customer, you are responsible for:

• Having the necessary permissions and lawful basis for any data or content you feed into an AI Feature.
• Reviewing AI output to confirm it is fit for purpose and does not infringe anyone else's rights.
• Keeping a human as the actual decision-maker in your hiring process, with AI intended to support that judgement rather than replace it.
• Complying with all relevant laws, including those covering automated employment decision tools, discrimination, accessibility, employment, and data protection.
• Meeting any legal obligations that fall on you as the deployer or operator of AI tools, such as impact assessments, bias audits, or notifying candidates.
• Telling candidates and other individuals, where relevant, that they are interacting with an automated system.

What Zoho commits to on transparency and oversight

In return, Zoho states that AI Features are designed to be transparent enough for you to interpret and use their output appropriately, and that your authorised users are given the ability to review output before relying on it, to modify, reject, or override output (including any action an AI agent takes), and to keep a record of what users did in response to that output. This is intended to help you evidence human oversight of your hiring decisions, though configuring and using these controls, and retaining your own records, remains your responsibility.

Next steps

We would recommend reviewing which AI Features are currently enabled on your Zoho Recruit account, particularly resume parsing, and checking that your hiring process still has a clear human review step before any AI-assisted output is acted on. If you need to disable AI-powered resume parsing, this has to be requested through Zoho Recruit support rather than changed in-app.